Title: Grace and Peace Be Multiplied
Text: 1 Peter 1: 2
Date: January 6, 2010
Place: SGBC, New Jersey
1 Peter 1:1: Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 2 Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.
This is the description of every saved sinner. Notice the three persons of the Godhead in verse 2:
· Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father
· through sanctification of the Spirit,
· unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ
Proposition: This is the assurance of we have, brethren: we are chosen by God the Father in eternity, sanctified by the Spirit of God and the obedience of Jesus Christ our is perfection; the blood of Jesus Christ our cleansing. Therefore grace and peace shall be multiplied unto us as long as we live in this world.
Brothers and sisters, the cure for all our care is grace:
· The power to lay aside all malice, guile, hypocrises, envies, all evil speakings
· The power which makes us desire the word as newborn babes
· The power which creates an honest deportment, a submissive spirit
· The power which delivers every believer even as Lot was delivered
IS THE POWER OF GOD'S GRACE.
I. OF GOD THE FATHER
1 Peter 1: 2: “Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.”
Elect means chosen:
1 Peter 2:9: But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.
Foreknowledge means "fore ordained".
What this does not say? Those who desire to be praised for their choosing, for their aisle walking, for their praying through, and so on--imagine that this verse says "God chose me because God LOOKED IN TIME AND SAW I would choose him."
Did God make a body and breathe life into Adam because God fore saw that Adam would have a body and eat, sleep and breath? No! God purposed before hand, pre-arranged before hand, to create a body, to breathe in him life and God brought to pass what he foreordained. So it is here.
The word does not mean "ominsicence-as in the all knowing attribute of God, but THE ACT OF ORDAINING BEFORE--OF SHOWING FORTH BEFORE WHAT SHALL BE ACCORDING TO GOD'S OWN CHOOSING. The same word translated “foreknowledge” here is translated “foreordained” in verse twenty. Christ was chosen of God AND fore-ordained (foreknown) before the world was made, then Christ came forth as foreordained.
1 Peter 1:20: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you.
Foreknowing and predestinating are both of God the Father that Christ his Son might receive the glory.
Ro 8:29: For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren 30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. 31: What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
Illustration: Pick Me! Pick Me! Pick Me!
II. OF GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT
1 Peter 1: 2: “Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit.”
Every child chosen of God shall know their election of God the Father because each shall be sanctified by the Spirit of God in regeneration. This is how repentance and faith is granted.
2 Thessalonians 2:13: But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: 14: Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
By this sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit--we are made to know and rest—that we did not choose God, but he chose us. We did not put the finishing touches on Christ’s work or make his work having meaning for us or making his blood to have saving effect. Now we know we did not come to God by our will but God made us willing in the day of his power. Now we know that everything we used to exalt ourselves, is worthless vanity—SALVATION IS WROUGHT OF GOD IN CHRIST JESUS! This is altogether, radically, different, separate. This is the setting apart, the sanctifying, grace and peace wrought of God the Spirit in our hearts. By this work “all things become new”
2 Corinthians 5:17: Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
Application: Knowing that God's choice shall result in God causing each of his chosen to approach God and to be satisified with God, fills the believer with peace--we wait on the Lord and simply set forth his word.
Psalms 65:4: Blessed {Happy} is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts: we shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple.
The religious folks were disputing and murmuring amongst themselves--listen to the peaceable assurance of our Lord Jesus Christ.
John 6:37: All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out…
III. ALL OF GOD THE SON--CHRIST JESUS
1 Peter 1: 2: Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.
The obedience of Christ is how his blood came to be shed for each of God's elect given to him.
Philippians 2:8: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
Christ's obedience is the righteous obedience of the believer
Romans 5:19: For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
The sprinkling of his blood is a reference to the day of atonement.
1 Peter 1:18: Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; 19: But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: 20: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, 21: Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.
1. Within the veil upon the mercy seat--the presence of God on our behalf
Hebrews 9:12: Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us…24: For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:
2. Within the tabernacle--Christ's blood applied in the heart by the sanctification of the Spirit
Hebrews 9: 14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?...Heb 10: 2: For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.
3. Christ our Altar makes all our feeble works holy in him, for our our great Savior is holy!
THE OBEDIENCE OF GOD-GIVEN FAITH IS TO HAVE OUR CONCSCIOUS PURGED FROM DEAD-WORKS, THE REBELLION, OF COMING TO GOD AN OTHER WAY THAN BY FAITH IN CHRIST.
2 Corinthians 10: 4: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) 5: Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
CONCLUSION: DIVINE ASSURANCE
1 Peter 1: 2: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.
This is an assured promise to every chosen, sanctified, redeemed sinner. It is an absolute promise.
· We are chosen by grace
· Regenerated and called by grace
· Redeemed by grace
· We stand by grace
· We are kept by grace
· GRACE SHALL BE MULTIPLIED UNTO YOU
THROUGH GRACE we ARE GIVEN PEACE
· Peace between YOU and God is wrought and given freely by the triune God of all grace
· Peace between you and your brethren is the effect of the grace of the triune God working in each of you
· This is Peace only God can give and for which only God shall receive the glory.
The grace and peace given of the triune God is the substance of a submissive heart, the substance of love for God and brethren.
· Jonah
· David
· Peter
How fitting to begin his letter by reminding the saints of God that multiplied grace and peace shall be unto you, of God.